Alcaraz will start a complicated US Open against Safiullin

The Spanish tennis player Carlos Alcaraz will debut in the US Open, the last ‘Grand Slam’ of the season that begins this Sunday in New York, against the Russian Roman Safiullin in what will be his first match after four and a half months off the court due to injury.

The Murcian learned his way this Thursday with the draw for the US Open draw, which did not smile at him at all since it landed him in a lower part of the individual draw that he shares with the Serbian Novak Djokovic, a hypothetical rival in the semifinals as could also be the Russian Daniil Medvedev.

Alcaraz, who last week announced his return to Flushing Meadows as the current champion, returns to action with doubts about the longest inactivity of his career, since his withdrawal in the Barcelona tournament in mid-April due to a right wrist injury that became much more complicated than he expected.

The two-time winner of the US Open had no luck with the draw from the very debut, since Safiullin has a good dynamic in 2026 and, in addition, was able to beat the Murcian in Monte Carlo in 2023. On the other hand, Alcaraz has in his path, possible rivals in the quarterfinals, the last two winners of the North American tour on hard court: the American Ben Shelton, winner in Montreal, and the Frenchman Arthur Fils, Cincinnati.

A lower part of the table that completes a Djokovic who returns to the fray in search of his record of 25 ‘Grand Slam’ titles, although the Serbian has been suffering physically almost every time he has taken to the court this campaign. Without the world number one, Jannik Sinner, due to injury, the German Alexander Zverev heads the poster after winning Roland Garros and reaching the final at Wimbledon.

In that upper part of the painting appear the Australian Alex de Miñaur, the Norwegian Casper Ruud and the Spanish Rafael Jódar. The Madrid native, a great revelation of this season in his first professional season, will debut against the Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis, seeking to continue his record-breaking climb in the Big Apple.